Of Rifts and Evas
by shadowspider101
Summary: What if an accident had caused the cast of NGE to be shot into another dimension. Ch.6 is up.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I do not own Evangelion or rifts. If I did, you would have heard of me.

A/N: Alright, here's the lowdown. I am not sure how many of you know what Rifts is (those of you that do get a cookie, but you have buy it yourself). I really don't want to bore you with the details so here's the short form: Rifts is a Sci-fantasy RPG set on a future post-apocalyptic Earth that was devastated by the eruption of the rifts. Rifts are holes in the barriers between dimensions, allowing instantaneous travel between the connecting dimensions. It's sci-fantasy because it incorporates both magic and technology into the setting. I chose this setting for my story because it allowed me to incorporate two of my favorite hobbies into one story. Also, inter-dimensional nature of Rifts allowed me to do things with the story I might not have been able to. As I go through the story I shall try to give good detailed descriptions so that those of you who aren't familiar with Rifts will not be left in the dust. If you still have question, please don't hesitate to e-mail me so that I might clear up any questions you might have. Phew, well now on with the story.

**Of Rifts and Evas**

**Book 1 of the Heaven's Storm series**

**Prologue**

Dimension: NGE Earth

Location: Tokyo-3, Japan

Date: June, 14 2014 (A/N: Not entirely sure on the date.)

"Is this true?"

"Yes sir, when the report hit my desk I checked with my contacts with the second-branch and they confirmed it."

"Damn."

"What do you think will happen now sir?"

"I don't know, we will have to wait and see how the committee reacts."

Later on, elsewhere in Tokyo-3...

As soon as Shinji Ikari entered class 2-A he was pulled aside by a very excited Kensuke Aida.

"Shinji, you've gotta tell me what happened?" Kensuke asked excitedly.

"T...tell you what?" Shinji asked, quite at a loss as to what the military buff was so excited about.

"C'mon you know, the attack on the Nevada branch of NERV. You're an EVA pilot, surely they've told you about it." Kensuke said, too excited to notice the look of confusion on Shinji's face.

"They haven't told me anything about an attack on NERV." Shinji stated in a confused tone. 'I didn't even know there _was_ a branch of NERV in Nevada.' Shinji thought to himself.

Kensuke, finally seeing the look of confusion on his friends face, filled him in.

"Yeah, there was a big assault against the Nevada complex. It was hit by a strike force of VTOL gun ships and elite ground forces. My Father's section was in an uproar about it. They think someone was trying to steal EVA unit-04." At this point Kensuke was quite out of breath and had to stop talking so that he could fill his lungs with air.

"EVA unit-04, I...I didn't even know there was a unit-04." Shinji said, still quite confused.

"Gee, don't they tell you anything?" Kensuke asked.

"No, not about another EVA...wait a minute does that mean that there is a unit-03 also?"

"Yeah, it's being built at the Massachusetts branch. I hacked my dad's files and saw that they've quadrupled security on it. It also looks like that once they're through building it they are going to ship it here to Tokyo-3. Maybe now I'll finally get a chance to pilot an EVA!"

Kensuke then proceeded to list all the reasons why he wanted to pilot an EVA, but Shinji wasn't listening.

'Units-03 and 04? Why didn't I know about them?' Shinji asked himself.

'Probably because I didn't need to know. All NERV needs from me is my ability to pilot EVA, why should they tell me anything.'

However, a voice in his head disagreed, 'Maybe if you just got the courage to ask, they might tell you something.'

'Shut up.' Shinji told the voice.

'You know I'm right.' The voice said.

'I said shut up, dammit.'

'I wonder if Asuka knew anything about more EVAs? Probably and if I were to ask she would then make snide comments on not only how inferior a pilot I am to her, but also on how dumb I was that I didn't know about the other EVAs.' Shinji decided that he just wouldn't bring the subject up with the prickly red-haired, German pilot.

"So do you know what they're going to do about unit-04?" Shinji asked Kensuke.

"Unit-04 is being transferred here." Gendo Ikari stated coldly.

Outwardly Gendo looked as he normally did, cool and collected. However, Vice-commander Fuyutski could tell that the committee's decision had angered Commander Ikari.

"Why?" Fuyutski asked.

"Apparently the Americans have gotten cold feet and have come up with the excuse that unit-04 would be safer here during its activation trials." Ikari answered.

"So the committee caved." Fuyutski stated.

"Nothing like this was foreseen when we began the Instrumentality Project, the old men are as shocked as the Americans were."

"Certainly the committee knows the dangers behind unit-04's activation, that's why it was supposed to be taking place in Nevada. It needs to be in an uninhabited area." Fuyutski said.

"After this attack the old men are taking no chances, they want the test done in a maximum security environment and what better place than the one hardened against Angel attacks." Gendo said.

Fuyutski sighed; there was nothing that could be done now.

"What of unit-03?" Fuyutski asked.

"It shall be shipped here as was originally planned." Gendo stated.

"Shall I inform Dr.Akagi to begin preparations for unit-04's arrival?"

Gendo simply nodded.

Without another word, Fuyutski walked out of Gendo's headquarters. He tried to shake the ominous feeling from his bones but he couldn't.

'This is a really bad idea.' Fuyutski thought to himself

End Prologue

Next chapter...1: I told you so.

A/N: So, what did you think about it. Please review. If you liked it, great. If you saw something that could be improved on, the give me some constructive criticism. I'm new to this so any help would be appreciated. If you feel like flaming well, laser-guided smart bombs will be there momentarily to plead my case. 'Til the next chapter.


	2. Ch1 I told you so

Disclaimer: I do not own Evangelion or Palladium books, the makers of Rifts. However, I did come up with all the original characters in this story. I do own them.

A/N: The Rifts side of the story will begin in this chapter and I would just like to reiterate that if you don't understand any terms than e-mail me and I'll happily explain them to you. There's nothing worse than a story where you don't understand half of what's going on. Also, I am going to include some author's notes on the bottom with some of the descriptions. When you see a (#) next to a term, it means that it is listed at the notes on the bottom. 0000000 denotes scene or point of view change. Enough chit chat, on with the story.

**Of Rifts and Evas**

**Book 1 of the Heaven's Storm Trilogy**

**Chapter 1: I told you so**

Dimension: Rifts Earth

Location: Magic Zone(1), Former USA

Date: June, 14 109 PA (Post Apocalypse)

"Ow, Dammit!"

Private Jenkins swore violently as he put down his razor and mirror. He had nicked himself again.

"That's the third damn time this morning." He growled to himself.

"Hey, Jenkins aren't you supposed to be able to shave yourself at 19." Someone jeered.

Jenkins promptly shot the bird at his fellow Coalition(2) soldier, Private Ambermarle.

"I'm hurt, does this mean that were not going steady." Ambermarle shot back.

"I've got yer steady right here." Jenkins said as he flashed his side arm, a C-18 laser pistol.

"Yeah, but mines bigger'en yours." Ambermarle quipped as he held up his weapon, a C-29 "Hellfire" plasma cannon.

"Alright, knock it off ladies. You can continue your lovers quarrel once we get back to Fort Cranston, but until we do don't for get where you are. I don't want ya arguing and let some D-bee(3) or magic user get the drop on us." This came from Sgt. Paxton, who always seemed to have a cigar in his mouth and his CP-50 "DragonFire" laser rifle in his hands. In other words, the perfect example of a Coalition Sergeant.

All around the camp coalition soldiers, in their infamous Dead Boy(4) armor, were packing up camp and getting ready to head home. It had been a long and arduous patrol and everyone was quite thrilled to be on the edge of the Magic Zone, only 14 miles away from Ft. Cranston.

'Won't be long enough.' Jenkins thought to himself as he picked up his mirror and finished shaving.

It had been his first patrol into the Magic Zone and Jenkins secretly hoped it would be his last. Not two days out they had been jumped by a pack of D-bees near the ruins of what had once been the town of Bridgeport, Ohio. Orcs, the Sergeant had called them. Jenkins hadn't cared, to him all D-bees were the same. The Orcs had been armed with primitive hand weapons, only a few of which were Mega-damage(5) capable. None had been armed with any sort of firearm. In fact, if it hadn't been for the magic-using orc the grunts would have been easily able to clear the D-bees out.

'Poor private Welk.' Jenkins thought to himself. The private's screams still woke him up at night.

'At least we got'em all for her.' Once the magic-user had gone down the soldiers had swept the town killing anything that wasn't human. By the end of the day they had purged the town of all the damn D-bees.

Other than Welk, the patrol had suffered no losses and only a few minor wounds.

After Bridgeport, the rest of the patrol had gone smoothly, a few nests of D-bees had been put to the torch and their inhabitants slaughtered, but that had been simple. None of them had put up a fight.

Jenkins examined himself in the mirror, "You are a handsome devil."

Ambermarle chuckled as he walked past, "Yeah, keep tellin yerself that."

Jenkins gave Ambermarle a look that would have killed had it been able to, and to Private Jenkins' utmost surprise it worked. Private Ambermarle's head disintegrated into a red mist.

0000000000

Private Ambermarle's killer savored the look of complete surprise on the Coalition soldier's face as he watched his fellow's head disappear.

"Well, there's their heads up." Quipped a voice in his ear.

Scott Fenix sighed and spoke into his headset, "Less wise cracking, more shooting Marc."

"Yes sir, commander sir." The reply was condescending and Scott could almost imagine Marc Fitzler, his friend and fellow magic-user, throwing him a facetious salute.

Scott turned his eyes back to the Coalition camp, the Sergeant was shouting out orders and his troops were racing around the camp setting up firing positions.

"C'mon, I know you're in there somewhere. Why don't you come out to play." Scott whispered to his target.

As soon as Scott said that four skeletons, seeming to have just risen from the grave, emerged from behind the Coalition hover car.

'Ah, there you are.' Scott thought to himself, while saying aloud, "Targets spotted."

Upon closer examination, one would find that these were not real skeletons. They were robots. Coalition Skelebots which had been assigned to work with the patrol. Their black and white armor resembled that of the Dead boys' body armor. In their hands they carried stubby, but deadly, rail guns. An ammo belt ran from the butt of the rail gun to the Skelebots back where the ammunition was stored.

At the appearance of the Skelebots, the sergeant ordered everyone to open fire. The CS(6) Dead boys quickly began firing in the general direction they assumed the shot had come from.

"Not even close." Scott whispered as he drew a bead on another Dead boy. As soon as Scott had the shot he whispered a few words and the air in front of him seemed to shimmer, much like the shimmer you see on a hot day. Scott squeezed the trigger on his las rifle and fired into the shimmer.

The great thing, and most disappointing thing about lasers is that unlike in the movies, they make no sound when fired. (A/N: As a sci-fi fanatic, I was greatly disappointed when I read this.) That makes a laser an excellent sniper weapon, at least until you open fire and the beam of light gives you away. Scott had decided to combine a commonly used camouflage spell with the laser. When the spell was cast all one had to do was fire into the affected area of the spell and the laser bolt just disappeared. Of course it wasn't completely invisible, if you watched closely you could see the shimmer of air that marked the passage of the laser bolt.

"Not that the target would have the time to look." Scott chuckled to himself.

Scott's target fell back from his position, a smoking crater in his chest.

Using this same tactic Scott dropped two more CS grunts, but had to duck when one of the Skelebots raked rail gun fire over his position. He doubted that he had been seen, he was quite well concealed under his chameleon cloak. It looked more like the Skelebots were firing in a covering pattern, keeping the flanks of the CS position clear.

"Um, Marc you can fire whenever you're ready." Scott said into his comm-unit.

"Another minute." Marc replied.

"Surely you're not serious." Scott said, getting a little anxious as the CS was coming his way.

"Of course I'm not serious." Marc said cheerfully. "And don't call me Shirley."

Scott was coming up with a reply when a rocket was launched from the trees behind the CS position. It impacted right in the middle of the three Skelebots, but didn't explode. No, it had a different purpose.

Fire from the CS positions slackened as the soldiers anxiously waited for the rocket to explode. After about 20 seconds passed and it still hadn't exploded the CS grunts began laughing and the fire from their positions picked up again, some of it now aimed behind them at Marc's position.

"Idiots." Scott sighed.

A full minute after the rockets impact, its nose split open and four spindly legs popped out of the back. It stood itself up and began to generate a humming sound. Energy began to coalesce in the opening on top. A CS Dead boy noticed and pointed his weapon at the rocket, but he was too late. Before he could fire the energy in the opening coalesced into a crackling blue orb which then launched itself into the air and detonated. All the CS soldiers ducked for cover, trying to escape the blast. The blast did not affect them though, it wasn't meant to. The Skelebots on the other hand were not so lucky. Electrical energy raced up and down their bodies for a few seconds before all three finally collapsed in a heap.

"It worked." Marc said in an incredulous tone.

"I'll be damned." Scott added.

'Alright, time to finish this.' Scott told himself. He then calmly laid his las rifle down; he would need his hands for this spell. Drawing deep from the reservoir off P.P.E(7) inside of him, Scott began to chant words of power, ancient words of power. At each word he inscribed its sigil into the air, where it hovered for a second before disappearing. Even as the CS soldiers opened fire again, Scott kept up the chant, picking up the pace of the words. Energy sparked and flared all around him. CS fire turned towards him, but by this time it didn't matter. Even as plasma and laser blasts flicked past him, Scott finished the chant and forced the energy away from himself and towards the coalition encampment. The energy turned into a mist which hung over the CS soldiers. The mist quickly condensed into a thick fog which obscured the Coalition position.

"Why'd you choose that one?" Marc asked, genuine puzzlement in his voice.

"You saw what they did, all the innocents they slaughtered. For that, they receive no mercy." Scott growled out.

"Well, you chose the perfect spell for it." Marc said, even as noise started to filter out of the fog. You couldn't see anything, but then again you really didn't need to. Weapon discharges could be heard and every now and then a high pitched shriek or scream echoed from the fog.

After a few minutes silence reined. Scott whispered a few words and the fog disappeared, the spell discontinued.

The CS position now resembled a charnel house. Dead boys, now a literal title, laid everywhere. Some had been shot, one looking like he had shot himself. The sergeant had a vibro-knife sticking from his chest. His killer, or what was left of him, lay a few feet away, a prime example of what one looked like after being shot at close range with a plasma cannon.

While the body was badly charred, you could still see the tell tale Dead boy armor he had been wearing.

The CS soldiers had killed each other.

The spell Scott had used was simply called the Terror. Anyone inside of the fog, except for the spell caster, saw their worst fears or relived the most horrific experiences of their life. The images were hallucinations, but to those under the effects of the spell it looked quite real. It looked as if one man had so wanted for the visions to go away that he had clawed his eyes out.

Scott rarely used the Terror and for a good reason. Anyone in the fog was affected by the spell, friend or foe. Still, the Coalition soldiers had committed mass murder of innocents and while Scott did not consider himself judge, jury, and executioner, he did believe that the punishment fit the crime.

Scott approached the Skelebots, not surprised to see that Marc had arrived before him.

"The Immobilizer missile worked like a dream." Marc crowed happily.

"I guess an, I told you so is in....whoa." Scott suddenly felt very weak and fell to his knees.

Marc jumped up grabbed Scott before he could complete his fall to the ground. He dragged him over to the CS hover car. Scott leaned against it, fighting off the wave of weakness that had passed over him. Yet another reason why he rarely used the Terror. The cost in P.P.E was very high and tended to leave Scott quite drained of energy.

"I guess I over did it." Scott said weakly.

"Yeah, I'd say so, just stay here for a minute and I'll load are prizes onto the hover car." Marc said, a genuine look of worry crossing his face as he saw how weak his friend looked.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine. So we're stealing the hover car too." Scott said, changing the subject.

"Owners are dead and by the inter-dimensional rules of robbery/homicide, this now belongs to us." Marc said, still a little worried.

Marc then turned to the three Skelebots and one by one cast levitation spells on them and directed their floating form into the back of the hover car, where he then laid them down. He then proceeded to move around the Coalition camp and strip the CS soldiers of their weapons and E-clips(8). He placed these in the back of the hover car with the Skelebots. Marc took one of the plasma cannons, put in a fresh E-canister(9) and proceeded to dispose of the bodies.

Meanwhile, Scott had pulled an amulet out of his pocket and drew some of the energy out of it, replenishing some of his own energy. Slowly Scott felt some of his strength return.

"Alright, it's all done. Now let's get the hell out of here." Marc said, having finished cleaning up the scene.

"You misted(10) the bodies?" Scott asked.

"Yep, nobodies going to be finding them, unless they bring in some specialist equipment." Marc stated.

Scott took a look around the clearing. Looking at it now, one wouldn't have thought that a battle had just taken place here. Blasted trees, scorched earth, the dead bodies had all disappeared. Rotting stumps occupied the area where the remains of charred trees once lay.

"Impressive work." Scott stated.

"Yeah, it's just an illusion though, in about a week everything will revert back to normal." Marc said.

"There is one problem though." Marc then pointed to a CS soldier at the edge of the clearing. He was curled up in the fetal position and looked dead. However, upon closer examination you could tell that he was very much alive.

The soldier was muttering something almost incomprehensible.

"Make it stop, make it stop, make it stop." He repeated it over and over again.

"What do we do about him?" Asked Marc.

"Leave him." Scott responded.

Marc hopped into the front seat of the hover car and quickly hot wired it. He then opened the passenger door to let Scott in. When Scott got into the passenger seat Marc stepped on the accelerator and sped away, heading deeper into the Magic Zone.

0000000000

A few days later, a ragged looking soldier wandered into Fort Cranston. He was half mad and kept crying out about how demons had slaughtered his unit.

A unit was sent out to find the rest of the soldiers patrol. The patrol was never found; for all intents and purposes it had up and disappeared.

While demons weren't ruled out in the official report, it was mentioned that more than likely that magic had been used. Unfortunately, without a battle site or bodies to examine investigators really couldn't give an exact cause for the disappearance. In the end the investigation was labeled unsolved, filed away and promptly forgotten. The story of the patrols disappearance quickly joined the ranks of horror stories told between CS soldiers.

The survivor, a Private Jenkins, was institutionalized and his patrol joined the ranks of patrols which had met mysterious ends in the dreaded Magic Zone.

000000000

End Ch.1

Next chapter....2: A risk not worth taking.

A/N: What do you think? Please review. Good reviews are welcomed, as is constructive criticism (I want to know what I might be doing wrong, I'm new at this). Flames are not welcome and will be quickly extinguished.

OMAKES- written by vcharlie

OMAKE (1): chapter 1: I told you so  
"Why'd you choose that one?" Marc asked, genuine puzzlement in his voice.

"You saw what they did, all the innocents they slaughtered. For that, they receive no mercy." Scott growled out.

"Well, you chose the perfect spell for it." Marc said, even as noise started to filter out of the fog.

You couldn't see anything, but then again you really didn't need to. The noises of moans and slapping sounds echoing from the fog did surprise Marc.

'He did use the Terror spell, right?'

After a few minutes silence reined. Scott whispered a few words and the fog disappeared, the spell discontinued.

The CS position now resembled an orgy gone bad, the Dead Boys were naked in a pile in what could be considered just plain wrong. They had fucked each other to death

"Scott what the hell is wrong with you?!" Marc was absolutely horrified at the spell Scott used.

"I said I gave them no mercy, the Sexual Frenzy spell makes the body feel unquenchably sexually attracted to the first thing it sees. The conscience mind is still aware of what they are doing but they can't do anything about it." Scott nonchalantly replies.

Marc thinks, 'Note to self: don't piss Scott off, also try to find a toned down version of that spell, a camcorder, and a feminist club.'  
-End of OMAKE (1)-

OMAKE (2): chapter 1: I told you so  
What the CS grunts saw:

The Dead Boys saw the mist envelop and descend on their position. All of a sudden from the mist the most horrible creatures appeared singing their song of death.

"I love you, you love me..." began the horrible, terrifying, gay Barney. The Teletubbies began to frolic around, showing horrible, horrible shows that are to comfort men who aren't men anymore being comforted by men. The horror, the shear horror.  
-End of OMAKE (2)-

(#)-terms

1. Magic Zone-An area encompassing the portions of the former states of Southeastern Missouri, Arkansas, southern Illinois, and the Ohio Valley (Southern Indiana and Ohio). It is a wild, untamed land with a high concentration of magic energy.

2. Coalition-The major human power in North America. Its capital is the city of Chi-Town (no it's not Chicago). Its territory is divided into the states of Chi-town (Northern Illinois and all of Iowa), El Dorado (north-east Arkansas), Iron Heart (the eastern half of the old Ontario province, Canada), Lone Star (Northwestern Texas), Missouri. The Coalition States government is fascist, human supremacists. They are also anti-magic. Basically, if you are not human or you use magic, they'll kill ya. They have no problems with genocide and commit it on a regular basis.

3. D-bee-Slang term for a dimensional being. Pretty much any thing from another dimension, be it a demon, a robot, or an alien. Even humans from another dimension, if they openly talk of it or show it, are labeled D-bees. The Coalition states hate all D-bees and will usually kill them on sight.

4. Dead Boy-The title given to Coalition soldiers. So called because of the Death's Head motif which has become the de facto symbol of the Coalition states.

5. Mega-damage-One of the two damage settings in Rifts. The other is Standard-damage.

Ex: A human, unless in M.D body armor, is a Standard-damage creature. A dragon, being a creature of magic, is a mega-damage creature. The high levels of magic energy on Rifts earth allow creatures of magic, supernatural beings, monsters and things to be mega-damage creatures. I'll make sure to list when the creature is M.D or S.D.

6. CS-Coalition states

7. P.P.E-Potential Psychic Energy, aka magic energy.

8. E-clips-Energy clips. They can be used in a number of devices besides weapons. They are rechargeable sources of energy.

9. E-canister-Larger, more potent form of E-clip. Contains a larger charge.

10. Misted-To disintegrate something, usually a body or building. So called because all that's left is mist.


	3. Ch2 A risk not worth taking

Disclaimer: See Ch.1

A/N: I had originally planned for all this to split with the Rifts stuff in ch.1 (hence its title). So due to that little miscalculation, this chapter will be shorter than ch.1 was. Also, while I've read a great deal of Eva fiction on line I'm not too sure how well I'm going to portray these characters. I don't want them to become OOC, at least not yet. So if anyone sees me going to far off course with the EVA characters, don't hesitate to point it out. If you have any tips, than I'll welcome them with open arms. Another thing is that I have not seen the entire Evangelion series (I know shame on me). For this story it hopefully won't be too much of a problem as all the action will be occurring on Rifts Earth. Book 2 might be a problem, but that's far in the future and so I won't worry about it. For chronology sake, this story happens shortly before the 13th angel, Bardiel. Sorry about the long A/N, I don't like confusing stories and so I try to make sure everything's smooth and clear. Now, on with the story. (Cheering heard in background). Hey, what are all of you people doing in my room?!

**Of Rifts and EVAs**

**Book 1 of the Heaven's Storm trilogy**

**Chapter 2: A risk not worth taking**

Dimension: NGE Earth

Location: Tokyo-3, Japan

Date: June, 30 2014

'This is all Shinji's fault.'

These words repeated themselves constantly in the mind of Asuka Langley Sohryu; it was her mantra for today. It had been her mantra for many days now.

Ever since that first time Shinji had beaten her synch ratio, Asuka had blamed him for everything, no matter how small or insignificant. Even those things which Shinji had nothing to do with like simply walking from point A to point B and stumbling along the way, well that would be blamed on Shinji.

'Maybe if you didn't think about him all the time.' A voice in her head pointed out.

"I do not think about the baka all the time.' Asuka retorted.

'Deny it all you want, but it's still the truth.' The voice responded.

'Ah! Now I'm arguing with myself. This is Shinji's fault too. I just know it is.' Asuka thought, though deep within her some uncertainty flared.

"Asuka, your synch ratio is slipping and that's something we don't need today. Wherever your mind is, bring it back here right now."

Misato's voice shook Asuka from her thoughts of Shinji, 'I'm not thinking about Shinji!' and back to her present surroundings.

Asuka was sitting in the control plug of EVA unit-02, waiting for Dr.Akagi to begin the activation sequence for unit-04.

(Flashback)

"Units-00 through 02 will be participating in the activation sequence of unit-04." Dr.Akagi said, though a certain bitterness seemed to seep into her words.

Asuka, Shinji, Rei, Misato, and Dr.Akagi all occupied the ready room. Dr.Akagi stood in front of a chart filled with projections and scenarios dealing with today's activation.

"Why all three?" Shinji asked.

"As you all have been briefed, unit-04 has been equipped with an experimental S2 engine. Unfortunately, we've never gotten the chance to test the engine's containment field. We really don't know if it's going to be effective or not. If it fails, that's where the EVAs come in. All three of you will project your AT fields at maximum around unit-04 and contain the breach until it has burned itself out." Dr.Akagi carefully explained.

"W...what are the odds of success?" Asuka asked, feeling quite a bit of apprehension at the moment.

Dr.Akagi did not answer right away. She carefully chose her next words.

"For a test like this, the MAGI gave us good odds of success."

"What exactly are good odds?" Misato asked, noticing the good doctor's hesitation.

"The odds of a successful startup, with no mishaps, are 5%." Without another word Dr.Akagi grabbed her things and left the room.

"Now I know why the test was going to be in Nevada, a lot less people to kill out their in the desert if something goes wrong." Shinji said with a worried expression plastered on his face.

(End Flashback)

"30 seconds before activation, all systems are go."

"Pilots, are you prepared?" Dr.Akagi asked from her position in the control room.

"I am ready." Rei's voice was the first to answer, sounding as monotone as usual.

'What do you expect, she's a doll.' Asuka sneered to herself.

"I...I'm ready." Shinji said, apprehension clearly coloring his voice.

'What do you expect, he's a coward.'

"I'm ready; let's just get this over with." Asuka said, sounding just as confident as ever.

'What do you expect, I'm the best.' However Asuka could feel doubt coloring this thought.

"EVAs, take up position around unit-04." Dr.Akagi ordered.

EVA unit-04 stood in the middle of the room, while the three other EVAs stood against the walls. At Dr.Akagi's command the three EVAs took up a roughly triangular position around the silver EVA.

"20 seconds to activation." A tech stated over the comm System.

'It's funny; I haven't heard a peep out of the pilot of unit-04.' Asuka thought. She then realized that she had not even seen a pilot get into it.

"10 seconds to activation."

From the control room the final countdown started.

"9."

"8."

"7."

"6."

"5."

"4."

"3."

"2."

"1."

"Begin activation sequence." Dr.Akagi ordered.

"Beginning sequence. Pilot/EVA link initiated, everything's green so far."

"Excellent, begin stage 3 link-up." Dr.Akagi said.

"3rd stage underway, absolute borderline in 0.2, 0.1, borderline breached, pilot and EVA are in synch." At this a few cheers went up from the techs.

"Be quiet, we're not done yet. Purge external power." Dr.Akagi knew there would be time for celebrating when the test was over.

"External power purged, beginning S2 engine power up."

Asuka watched from her entry plug as the external power cable attached to the EVA's back was jettisoned to the floor.

'Here comes the tricky part.' Asuka thought to herself.

"S2 engine is powering up, full power will be attained in 12 seconds." A tech said.

"10 seconds until full power."

"How does the containment field look?" Dr.Akagi asked.

"It's holding steady mam."

"Full power in 3 seconds, 2 seconds, 1."

When the countdown hit one it seemed as if everything seemed to freeze. No noise, no movement, no nothing. It was the calm before the storm.

"S2 engine is at full power and the containment field is holding, it looks like we have a successful activation." At these words the entire control center broke into cheers. Hands were shaken and nervous breaths were let out.

Asuka let out a sigh of relief.

'Not that I was nervous or anything.' Asuka thought, though she only half believed herself.

'Looks like they were worried over nothing.'

As soon as she thought this alarms began to wail.

'Mien Gott, why did I have to go and think that!?' Asuka shouted to herself.

"What's wrong?" Dr.Akagi demanded

"There's a disturbance in the S2 engine, the MAGI are identifying it as a cascade meltdown!" A tech shouted out.

"The containment field is developing multiple harmonic strains, its not going to hold much longer!" Another tech cried out, fear infecting her voice.

"EVA units move in and surround unit-04 with you AT fields. Make sure they're at maximum power." Dr.Akagi quickly ordered.

Asuka quickly moved unit-02 in and brought her AT field up at max power. Shinji and Rei did the same with their EVAs.

"S2 engine containment failure is imminent; EVA AT fields have been raised around the target."

The S2 unit on 04's chest, which up until now had been glowing a steady red, had now begun to pulse in an increasingly violent pace. After a few seconds arcs of energy began to spring from the S2 engine. At first the AT fields were able to deflect the energy without a problem, but as the containment field grew weaker and weaker, the energy leaks became more powerful. The EVA units were soon hard pressed to hold their positions.

It was at this point that the containment field collapsed. The S2 engine glowed a bright, blinding white for a second and then unleashed all of its shackled energy. A wall of energy leapt at the control room, almost as if it intended to punish these foolish mortals who thought they could harness such power. It was stopped short of its goal by the AT fields. For a moment it seemed as if the AT fields would hold the rampant energy, but one glorious second later the AT fields fell...

...and Tokyo-3 disappeared in a glowing ball of energy.

After that nothing would ever be the same.

Next chapter....3: Dude, where's my dimension?

A/N: Well, this chapter was definitely shorter than Ch.1. The next few chapters will be pretty long, as I am going to be getting a lot more descriptive with characters and scenes. I really didn't expect the good reviews I have gotten so far, and am happy that those of you who have read my story have liked it thus far. I've got some responses to some of your reviews:

Eternally Lost Zeppo- Damn right I'd like a pre-reader. I tried to send you an e-mail, but I guess you didn't get it. Contact me and we'll work out the details.

X-Over- If you want to see Hikari and Kensuke becoming EVA pilots I recommend you read Eva unit-U's Evangelion, Children of humanity. It's a great story.

Andross-937- Thanx for the excellent review. You were right on the money with Jenkins and your getting pretty warm on what I plan to do with the Eva cast(though you've still got away to go). Also, SD damage can affect MD items, though it takes something like 100 SD points to inflict 1 point of MD damage. Maybe we can e-mail each other, I've got some ideas but I'd like a sounding board.

Thanks again for all the great reviews and I'll try to keep up the good work. (Cheering is heard) Why are you people still in my room?!


	4. Ch3 Dude, where's my dimension

Disclaimer: See ch.1

A/N: Here we go the beginning of the crossover. From here on out everything is about to go AU. As usual, if you see (#), then there will be a short description at the bottom of the story. 000000 denotes a scene or POV change. Also, if you want some good background on Rifts you should read the story Crossroads (another rifts/eva x over), unfortunately it looks like its been discontinued. Without any further ado (looks cautiously around room), lets begin this chapter. (Cheering heard from outside of window) Ah! Why won't you people just leave me alone!?

**Of Rifts and EVAs**

**Book 1 of the Heaven's Storm trilogy**

**Chapter 3: Dude, where's my dimension?**

Dimension: Rifts Earth

Location: Auberge research facility, Magic Zone, former USA

Date: June, 30 109 PA (Post Apocalypse)

When one looked at the Auberge research facility, one would wonder if the name were perhaps a joke. How could a structure such as this be tasked with something as mundane as research? However-as was usually the case on Rifts Earth-looks could be deceiving.

The Auberge research station was a large pyramid, which had been built over a nexus (1) point. The construction had been done by an Atlantean Stone Master (2), who had owed a rather large favor to the owner of the facility. The pyramid-like most of the others of its kind-calmed and channeled the raw energies generated at the nexus point. The excess P.P.E could then be channeled towards the needs of the facility.

The pyramid was very large; but was hidden away from prying eyes by powerful spells and enchantments. From the meeting room-near the top of the pyramid-one had to admit that the view of the surrounding area was quite beautiful.

'From this high up, why should it not be.' Damon Auberge-owner and leader of the Auberge research facility-thought to himself. His lean 6'2 frame was outlined against the window by the sunlight that was filtering through it.

A polite cough from behind Damon brought him out of his musings. He turned around to face the long oval table which dominated the room, and to the people who sat around that table. With but a wave of his hand, Damon willed the window to go from clear to an opaque black. Now-without the light blocking the view-one could see the rest of Damon quite clearly. At first glance he looked to be about 25-30 years old. He had white hair which he wore long, and usually in a stylish ponytail. His eyes were hard and seemed to hold a good deal of wisdom within them, though those that knew him well knew that his eyes could also show reassuring warmth. Other than a scar across his left cheek, his skin was unblemished and well-tanned. He was quite handsome, and many a women had fallen in love with him. All had been politely rebuffed. His excuse was that-at the moment-his work was very important to him, and he just didn't have time for a relationship.

Damon quickly inspected his subordinates; making sure they were all here.

'Hmm... Thorson, Mal'ec, Red, the twins, Val, Fenix...'

"Scott, where's Marc? He's not alone in the labs again is he? You remember what happened last time." Damon said, addressing one of his Techno-Wizards (3).

"He said he would be along in a minute, and this time I left Spark with him so we wouldn't have a repeat of the last time. I don't want to have to rebuild our lab again." Scott Fenix stated.

Any further comment was cut off as the doors slid open, and Marc Fitzler sauntered in.

"See I told you it wouldn't happen. I didn't blow anything up this time. Not that I could have with the mother hen over here constantly watching my every step."

The mother hen in question-actually a round, floating robot-hovered quietly into the room after Marc. The product of much experimentation, the TW (Techno-Wizard) Autonomous Assistant Bot was one of the earliest successes to come out of Scott and Marc's section of the research facility. Damon had listed it as a failure because it was not capable enough for what had once been its primary function. Scott and Marc, loath to waste such a capable design (its AI alone was years ahead of most other known designs), and needing another set of hands to help in their lab had simply retasked the prototype-now known as Spark-into an assistant. In this field it seemed that the little bot excelled, and there was talk of producing more for the rest of the facility.

"Alright, now that everyone is here lets get this meeting started." Damon said as he sat down at the head of the table.

"First things first. Circe, are you online?" Damon asked, directing his question to the view screen attached to the wall opposite him.

"Yes sir, how may I be of service?" A pleasant female voice answered Damon, coming from the speakers cleverly hidden around the room. Circe was the base computer, and was practically one of the researchers herself. She was a sentient, self-aware computer program. She ran all systems in the base and was 100% reliable. It had been she who had programmed Spark's AI core; it had been one of her first assignments after her installation.

"Alright Circe who won this time?" Damon asked the computer.

"According to R&D reports and specs submitted to me for overview," As this was said the view screen came to life with a simple bar graph, "it looks as if we have a tie."

Two of the bars on the graph-larger than the others, but equal to each other-were enlarged. At the bottom of each, the department symbol was listed. One was a pair of crossed axes over a flaming gauntlet. The other was a clockwork dragon in flight.

"It would seem that Scott & Marc have tied with Grunir for first place."

Both parties looked to be quite disappointed at this turn of events. Scott and Marc had been leading for awhile, and didn't want to lose their winning streak. Grunir Thorson-the dwarfish Techno-Wizard-looked as dour as he usually did. The dwarf showed his nervousness by raking his hands through his red beard; a common sign of agitation made by the dwarf.

"Okay Circe, tie breaker time. Which of the two projects looks better for our purposes?" Damon asked.

On the view screen, schematics and notes quickly revolved across the screen, "At first glance, Grunir's project seems to be the best. It's cutting edge stuff, and could yield great potential when it's completed."

Upon hearing this, a grin cracked the dwarf's craggy face; and the looks of disappointment deepened on Scott and Marc's faces.

Circe's next words quickly changed all that, "However, the cutting edge nature of the work is also the short-coming of this project. While it is viable and should not be discarded, the time needed to build a prototype and test it in the time frame we have is simply not cost effective, and may lead to problems which could have been avoided."

"Scott & Marc's project-while not as cutting edge-is far more cost effective, doubly so because it seems they already have a prototype ready to go. With enough resources, mass production could begin in as little as 2 weeks. The conversion of the Coalition Skelebots to TW devices has proven as effective as they predicted. Even if the risks to their own lives far outweighed the benefits at the time."

Both of the young Techno-Wizard's winced at the tone of Circe's voice.

"Sorry mom." Marc said.

"Okay, so the winners are Scott and Marc. Mark it down in the log Circe. Now let's get to some real business." Damon said, opening up the folder on his desk.

Before he could get started though, the Elven Shifter (4) Kurnus Mal'ec cried out in pain. His hands clutched the sides of his head and his face contorted in agony. However, by the time Val Nostrom-the base's resident healer-got to him, the pain seemed to have gone away.

"What was that all about?" Damon asked, concerned for the well being of one of his employees.

"I don't know, it felt like the same sensation I get when I sense a rift opening, but amplified a hundred times over." The elf brushed his raven black hair out of his face, and spent the next few seconds reorganizing himself.

"Whatever it was, I want you to report to the medical center when this meetings over." Val said, her voice brooking no disapproval.

Once again, Damon tried to get back to business, and once again he was interrupted.

A powerful tremor shook the building, and what sounded like an explosion echoed in the room. All at once, every eye in the room turned towards Marc.

"It wasn't me this time, I swear." Marc said quickly.

"Sir, I just detected a type 5 dimensional anomaly occurring in sector...wait...make that two anomalies one in sector 5c and another in sector 1b." Circe reported.

"Sector 1b, that's right out in front of the facility. Circe reroute security camera feeds of that sector to the screen." Damon ordered.

The view screen quickly changed from the day's reports to an image from right out in front of the pyramid. At first nothing could be seen; there was too much dust in the air. However, it was a windy day, and the dust was swiftly cleared away to reveal an amazing site. There, lying not two hundred feet from the entrance of the pyramid, lay a giant robot of some sort. It had a primarily blue coloring, with white highlights. With its one eye it resembled power armor a Cyclops might have worn; if that Cyclops were nearly a hundred feet tall.

"Circe, what are your scanners telling you?"

"I am having trouble scanning the robot; it is giving off a strange signature. I am however detecting 5 other life signs near it. Preliminary reports suggest they're human. My sensors don't have the range to give a detailed analysis of sector 5c; However, I can tell you that at least two more of these robots have landed there."

While everyone else in the room began discussing what had just happened, Damon began to quickly think out a plan. An incredible gift had just dropped into his lap, and he had to grab it before someone else did. He immediately went into quick thinking mode.

"Mal'ec, will other shifters have been able to sense what just happened?" Damon asked the elf.

"Yes." The elf replied.

"Alright people, here is what we're going to do. Val, I want you, Grunir, and Marc to head out to sector 5c and check out the site there. I don't care how you manage it, but I want those robots brought here. Take whatever equipment you need; you might not have a lot of time."

Damon then turned to Scott, "Scott, I want you to head up operations for the robot outside; check out those life signs and then find some way to get that robot off our door step." Damon ordered.

"Everyone has their orders, now get moving."

0000000

Location: Sector 1b

Scott looked at the giant robot in awe. It was even more incredible up close than it was on the view screen. He was tempted to run back inside, grab some more scanners and have a field day studying it. Unfortunately his fun would have to be put on hold.

"Spark, start a search pattern. See if you can find those life signs Circe was talking about." Scott ordered.

"Beginning search pattern." Spark replied cheerfully. The little robot then zipped off into the forest which surrounded the research facility.

Scott whipped out his deep scanner and got to work on the robot.

"Circe was right; this thing is giving off a weird scan. I wonder... if I were to try a psychic scanner, maybe I could get a clearer scan." Scott quickly put up his scanner and pulled a strange headset from the carrying pouch at his waist. The headset was nothing more than a lot of silver wiring and a glowing crystal set into the front of the headset. Scott slid the headset on, making sure the crystal was lying on his forehead. When he had finished adjusting the headset, Scott then closed his eyes and focused on the robot.

This time there was no distortion. With the psychic scanner, Scott could see the different auras that surrounded all creatures.

"Ah, that's better. Now let's see what we can see." Scott happily murmured to himself.

"Whoa. That things giving off two auras, which can only mean that there are two life signs. I'm guessing the bigger one must be the robot; well if it's giving off a life sign it's probably not a robot. So that means the aura in its back must be the pilot. Of course, I could be mistaken."

Scott opened his eyes and looked at the robot closely.

"Yeah, that back plate there could be a hatch of some sort, I think."

After a few seconds of internal debate, Scott leapt on to the robot and made his way to the suspected hatch. Upon reaching it he examined it closely.

"I wonder why it has this big cross mounted on it." Scott wondered to himself.

Scott then noticed a seal on the back, "Well that explains it. NERV: God's in his heaven, all's right with the world. Well, if all is right with the world, why do you need this big ass robot?" Scott was so deep in his thoughts that he didn't notice the handle until he tripped over it.

"What the hell did I just trip on?"

Scott looked at the handle and saw the label right above it.

"Emergency release, just what I was looking for."

Scott grabbed the handle and pulled it out of its socket. He then turned it ninety degrees, as the instructions ordered, and then pushed it back into the socket. Scott smiled as he heard machinery start moving, and then cried out as he was launched into the air as the back plate popped open. He landed hard somewhere near the head of the robot.

"I'm thinking a stand clear warning would have helped there." Scott muttered to himself. He picked himself up off the ground, dusted off the dirt on him and then cast a simple levitation spell on himself. He floated back over to the back plate, which was now open and extruding a very weird looking cylinder.

"The writing appears to be Japanese; well that's what these are for." Scott said as he pulled out a pair of ordinary looking glasses. He put them on and then used some of his P.P.E to charge them up. The glasses contained a spell known as the Eyes of Thoth. With these glasses, Scott could read any language, though he couldn't speak it.

Using the glasses, Scott read the writing on the capsule.

'Entry plug, Unit-00. Well, I'm guessing that this is the entry plug, but what is a unit-00?' Scott silently wondered to himself.

Scott circled the "entry plug" looking for a way in. He soon found it.

'Another emergency hatch, huh. Well this time let's hope it doesn't pop out.'

Scott grabbed the handles and easily pulled them out. He twisted them around and then hopped back, just as a precaution. He need not have been worried, as the hatch slid open spilling a strange orange liquid as it did.

'What's this stuff? Best get a sample off it.'

Scott was filling a specimen tube with some of the liquid, when he heard a noise from inside the entry plug. Scott's hand dropped to the holster on his thigh and drew his .44 cal. "Thunderer".

"On second thought, a stunner would be a better choice." Scott quickly re-holstered the handgun and then drew a much lighter gun from inside his jacket. The TW "Nerve Jammer" was something he and Marc had recently come up with. The gun converted magic energy into psychic energy, which was then fired at the target. The psychic bolt would then hit the target and-in essence-jam their nervous system. It was painless-something he had learned from experience-and had many settings for the different foes one might face on Rifts Earth. Scott set it to the lowest one, assuming for the moment that the target was indeed human.

Scott quietly moved over to the entry plug. On the count of three he grabbed the top of the hatch and lunged in, gun training on the pilot. However, he promptly forgot about the gun when he got his first look at the pilot. The pilot was human alright, and she was quite beautiful.

The girl looked to be 18 years old; she had blue hair, pale skin and was-by Scott's judgment-probably 5'10 or 5'11.

'Plus check out that figure, that suit she's wearing leaves nothing to the imagination.' A voice in his head stated. Scott immediately pushed the thought to the side (even though he did agree with it).

However, Scott did take another look at her suit though. It seemed like maybe she had been in a battle or something; there were little rips and tears on it.

'Those tears are in some of the most interesting pl...' Scott quickly stamped down on that thought.

Scott pulled a simple med scanner from his belt, and stepped into the entry plug. He moved over to the pilot and moved the scanner over her, checking for any injuries.

'She looks fine.' Scott thought when he finished his scan.

'You got that right.' The voice said, popping back into his head.

'Oh, would you shut up!'

Scott was so lost in thought arguing with himself that at first he didn't hear the soft whisper. However, he did hear it the second time. Scott looked at the pilot and saw that her eyes were open. Her eyes were red in color.

'Well, that explains the pale skin. She is an albino.'

0000000

Location: unknown

Rei had been drifting in a sea of darkness. She didn't know how long she had been there, and could only vaguely recall how she had got there. She remembered a blinding light, a maelstrom of wind, bolts of energy and then nothing.

She probably would have stayed in this sea of darkness if not for the cool breeze which had wafted over her, bringing her out of unconsciousness.

When she had opened her eyes she had immediately recognized her surroundings; she was in unit-00's entry plug. Looking around, she saw that the breeze had come in from the open emergency hatch. Wait, who was that standing over her?

His head was bent down as he looked at some odd hand device. He had a far away look in his ice-blue eyes; a look that reminded Rei of when she stared out the window in class. He looked to be older than her, probably 19 to 20 years old.

"Who?" Rei's first attempt at speech came out as a barely audible whisper. The man didn't notice at first, so Rei repeated her question a little louder.

That time the he did hear her, and looked up to her face.

"Who?" Repeated Rei a third time.

The man looked at little puzzled, and then mumbled something to himself in what sounded like English. However, the next words he spoke were in a language Rei had never heard before. He then spoke to her again, this time in Japanese.

"Is this better?" He asked in Japanese. At that moment, Rei could have sworn she saw blue sparks fly from his mouth.

"My name is Scott Fenix, welcome to Rifts Earth." The man said with an amused expression on his face. Rei-of course-did not understand the humor.

Rei had many questions floating through her mind; however, before she could ask them unconsciousness claimed her once more.

00000000

Scott watched as the girl once again drifted into unconsciousness.

'Good going Fenix, great first impression.' Scott mentally berated himself.

A buzz from his comm.unit interrupted his thoughts.

"This is Scott."

"Sir, Spark here. I have located all five of the life signs. They all appear to be human, and scans report them to be in good health." Spark reported.

"Excellent job, Spark. Plant locator beacons at their coordinates and then summon some medics from the facility. I've found the pilot to this robot, and I'll bring her in myself."

"Oh, so it's a female is it? Maybe I should head over there and keep an eye on you two." Spark responded, humor coloring its voice.

"Make anymore comments like that and the only place you'll be going is the scrap heap." Scott retorted.

"Heh, heh, we'll see. Beacons have been planted and medical assistance summoned. Spark out." With that Spark then broke the connection.

"Uppity robot, Marc has obviously corrupted him."

Scott then stepped over to the pilot and gently picked her up. Scott then climbed out of the entry plug and off of the robot. He then proceeded back to base, his destination: the medical wing.

00000000000

Location: sector 5c

It had been the pain that had called him here. He couldn't understand it at first, but now he knew why.

Standing before him were two giant robots. They were obviously gifts from the gods. They were the sign he had been waiting for, that his mistress had been waiting for. He quickly turned and ran back into the forest; anxious to inform his mistress of the weapons that the gods were gifting her with.

000000000

Next chapter...4: Discoveries

Special thanks: Eternally Lost Zeppo, my pre-reader who pointed out to me a serious flaw in this chapter which I would have completely overlooked, thanks.

A/N: If parts of this chapter seemed vague, there are two reasons for it. A) Most of this chapter was typed after midnight and, B) I was being intentionally vague in some parts. I intentionally changed Rei's age, it will be explained in ch.5, and as you will see in ch.4 it wasn't only Rei who was changed. Well, that's it for this chapter. Please R&R. 'Til next chapter.

(#): Definitions

Nexus- A point where two or more ley lines converge. Rifts tend to open more frequently on nexus points. Magic energy is stronger on these points.

Atlantean Stone Master- A magic user and former inhabitant of Atlantis, who uses magic to shape stone. Also have other abilities that have to do with stones, and gems.

Techno-Wizard- A relatively new form of magic. Only recently started in North America, and is nearly unknown in the rest of the Megaverse. Techno-Wizard's combine magic and technology into devastatingly effective items. Many TW items require that you be a magic user to use them. However, a number of new inventions, such as the TW P.P.E clip, allow non-magic users to use TW devices.

Shifter- A form of magic. Shifters are the premier travelers of the Megaverse. No one else understands rifts and dimensional travel better than they. They can sense the opening of rifts within a 10 mile radius.

Review responses-

Isamu- Glad you could review. I read your story and it kicks ass. If you need any help or motivational ideas just e-mail me.

vcharlie-Thanks for the overview of Tokyo-3. However, in the world of Rifts all those anti-angel defenses are not going to be as effective against the foes that Tokyo-3 will face. However as you will eventually see, this will not be a problem. I plan on giving a good background for Rifts earth in ch.5, and character flashbacks will also start in that chapter or in ch.6. If you can't wait, read Isamu's crossroads (another rifts/eva fic), his first chapter has a great overview in it.

Andross937- Thanks for another great review. I have to say I am a little flattered. Thanks for pointing out that SD/MD thing (Never knew that). As for the e-mails, I have no problem waiting for a reply, I'm a patient person.


	5. Ch4 Discoveries

Disclaimer: See Ch.1

A/N: Okay, I've been getting some comments on character backstories, or the lack there of. Don't worry, ch.5 and ch.6 will have the character backgrounds and will also have events such as the Great Cataclysm and Coming of the Rifts explained to the Eva crew. So please be patient.

**Of Rifts and Evas**

**Book 1 of the Heaven's Storm trilogy**

**Chapter 4: Discoveries**

Dimension: Rifts Earth

Location: unknown

Date: June, 30 109 PA

"Where the hell am I?" Asuka asked to no one in particular, finding the sound of her own voice very comforting.

The Second Child was very confused. One moment she had been sure she was dead, as the energy wave from the S2 engine broke through her AT field. Next thing she knew, she wakes up in unit-02's entry plug feeling sore as hell, and with her EVA completely drained of power. She quickly hit the emergency release to eject her entry plug from the Eva. Once she had got out of the entry plug, she had been hit by a new set of problems. First, her plug suit was too tight. Next, she felt a little off balance. And finally last of all she had a splitting head ache.

Oh yeah, and she was lost too.

'Today has just been wunderbar.' Asuka thought sarcastically.

She stood next to unit-02, which was itself standing at the edge of a clearing in a forest; a really creepy forest in Asuka's opinion. She also had a sinking suspicion that they were not in Japan anymore, since none of the trees matched with those she had seen during her time there.

Further thought was cut off by the sound of an entry plug being released from an Eva.

"Finally, the baka wakes up."

Asuka marched over to the other side of the clearing where unit-01 waited. She heard the sound of an emergency hatch being opened, and moments later saw the outline of Shinji on the Eva's shoulder. Unfortunately he was standing with his back to the sun, and Asuka couldn't see him clearly. However, from his movements he didn't seem to be injured.

"Shinji you baka, get down here!" Asuka yelled up at him. While yelling at him allowed her to relieve some of her pent up emotions, though she would never admit that she had yelled at him just to get him down there with her.

Shinji jumped at the sound of her voice, and then began to climb down the Eva. He reached ground out of Asuka's line of sight, took a moment to collect himself, and then turned to face the red-haired pilot.

A second later, two shrieks filled the air.

"What happened to you?" They both yelled, almost simultaneously.

Asuka couldn't believe her eyes; this couldn't be wimpy little Shinji. He was too old, too handsome to be Shinji. However, upon closer inspection she could see the similarities. In fact, he looked kind of like his father, though much younger, and without the beard.

'I must be hallucinating.' Asuka thought.

000000000

'I must be hallucinating.' Shinji thought.

This was definitely Asuka Langley Sohryu; there was no denying that. She had the same hair, the same eyes, and definitely the same attitude. It was everything else that had changed. She looked stunning - not that she hadn't before - but now she looked like a goddess.

'It looks like she has aged a couple of years.' Shinji thought.

Shinji could not help but notice the appraising looks that Asuka was giving him.

'I...is s...she checking me out?'

However, a few seconds later her usual snide look returned, and Shinji braced himself for the inevitable explosion. He was not disappointed.

"This is all your fault." She said in her usual accusatory tone.

"M...my fault, why is this my fault?" Shinji asked, stuttering over his words. He was not sure if it was fear, anger, or awe over how Asuka looked that caused the stutter.

"Stop staring at me like that, you pervert."

Further argument was cut off by the sound of rustling bushes at the far edge of the clearing. Both pilots turned their heads toward the noise, and watched as something from their worst nightmares crawled into the clearing.

It was grotesque - whatever it was. It was some sort of monster with four legs, and grey skin. It had a horrifying face, with a long snout full of teeth, and a curved horn projecting from the top of its snout. It had a long, dexterous tail which it used to balance its body. Its soulless black eyes stared directly at the pilots.

Saliva dripped from its jaws, as it opened its mouth and let out one of the most horrible sounds they had ever heard. It sounded like some kind of demonic laughter.

The creature seemed to just stroll casually around the clearing, circling the two pilots. It kept its distance from the EVAs, but never let the pilots from its sight.

Suddenly the monster leapt at them. Shinji grabbed Asuka and pushed her out of its path. However, the monster passed right over their heads, not even touching them. Once again it let out its insane laughter.

For the next few minutes the beast toyed with them. Sometimes it would lunge in their direction and then suddenly stop; as if it just wanted to watch them flinch. Other times it would lower its horned head and paw the ground; acting like it was going to charge them. It never did though; it would just start laughing again.

"It's playing with us." Asuka whispered to Shinji, her face pale with fear.

The monster looked like it was about to start with its games again when suddenly a new sound was heard. It was a high pitched whine.

"Get down!" A voice yelled at them, in English.

Asuka dived for the ground, Shinji just moments behind her.

A whistling sound was heard, followed a few seconds later by an explosion and a wash of heat. Asuka was the first to look up.

The monster was gone. Where it had stood was a smoking crater; no evidence of the beast remained.

Once again the pilots heard laughing, but this time they were relieved that it sounded like a human.

"Don't you know that it's dangerous to park out here after 5 pm?" They heard the voice from before asked jokingly from behind them.

Shinji turned around and saw their rescuer. He stood about 5'10 and was a little overweight. He had dark brown hair which he cut short and green eyes hidden behind a pair of glasses. There was also a smile on his face which looked like it never went away and a jovial twinkle in his eyes.

He was standing in front of the strangest vehicles that Shinji had ever seen. It looked like some kind of bike, but the wheels looked more like landing gear.

"You two can get off the ground now, otherwise someone might think you were doing something naughty." The guy said.

This statement managed to shake Asuka from her state of shock.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?!!!" Asuka screamed.

"How can you even imagine me and this spineless baka doing anything of the sort?"

"Wel,l your torn clothing does tend to make one wonder, your choice of venue is remote, and - if it weren't for the demons - I'm sure this would make a fine make out spot." The man just seemed to be enjoying every second of this, and he wasn't even afraid of Asuka's wrath.

Asuka turned bright red, turning away from Shinji and the man in embarrassment.

She was in luck though, Shinji had not noticed as he had also turned a bright red.

"Och laddie, we are here to rescue them; not turn them into tomatoes." A second, deeper voice said from behind the man.

Shinji looked past the guy and saw what looked like a dwarf - straight from some RPG - standing next to unit-01 and attaching some strange device to it. The "dwarf" finished attaching the device and turned towards the two pilots.

"You'll have to forgive Marc here; he seems to think that he's funny." The dwarf said, indicating the man who had saved them.

The man, Marc, grumbled something in a language that Shinji did not recognize. He then headed off into the clearing and out of Shinji's line-of-sight.

The dwarf offered Shinji his hand, helping him back on to his feet.

"The name's Grunir Thorson, Techno-Wizard Inventor Extraordinaire." Grunir stated, giving his name and title.

"Yeah, it's extraordinary when one of your inventions works." Marc jeered from the direction of unit-02.

Shinji's mind was buzzing with questions, but before he could get a single one out, another voice announced itself.

"Oh you poor dears, have you had to put up with these two cretins for long?" This came from a woman, who hopped out of another strange vehicle. It looked to Shinji like a floating car.

She was quite attractive, with her long golden blond hair, bright blue eyes, and a tall, slender body. She was wearing some sort of body armor with a red cross on the chest, indicating that she was some sort of medic. At least Shinji guessed that was what it meant.

"Hi, I'm Valerie Nostrom, though my friends call me Val." The woman, Val, walked over to Shinji and pulled out a hand held device which she then waved over his body.

"Well, you seem to be in perfect condition; no internal injuries or broken bones. You might want to fire your tailor though; it looks like he gave you the wrong size of clothes."

Shinji - who had been in a slight daze ever since he woke up - looked down at his plug suit and saw what Val had been referring to. It was stretched way tighter than normal, and was developing tears in many areas. He also noticed that the plug suit was emphasizing some parts of his anatomy, and quickly developed a deep blush.

Val noticed this and chuckled, "Don't worry kid; nothing I haven't seen before." She winked as she said this, which only caused Shinji to turn a deeper red.

"What's your name kid?" Val asked.

"S...Shinji, Shinji Ikari." Shinji answered.

"Pleased to meet you, Shinji. I'm sure Grunir has already introduced himself, and you already know me, but the guy over there is Marc Fitzler."

Val pointed at Marc, who was busily attaching the same strange devices that were on unit-01 to unit-02.

"Hey, what are you doing to my EVA?!" Asuka yelled.

"Who is she?" Val asked Shinji.

It was at this point that Shinji realized that he couldn't speak English very well, as he had not used it since Junior High. The confusion must have shown on his face, as Val laughed, then pointed to a device in her ear and another on her neck, which Shinji had mistaken for jewelry.

"These are universal translators of sorts. It's a good thing you speak an Earth dialect, otherwise we might have had a little trouble in communicating at first."

"I've never heard of technology like that." Shinji said to her.

"No? Hmm, I thought with those giant robots of yours..." Val went silent for a moment at this, seemingly deep in thought.

"Where are we?" Shinji asked, interrupting Val's train of thought.

"All your questions will be answered once we get back to base." Val said.

"But you never answered my question, who is she?" Val indicated Asuka, who was currently yelling at Marc to stop messing with her EVA.

"Her name is Asuka Langley Sohryu, she's...we work together." Shinji paused, unsure of how much he should tell her.

"Alright, everything's ready; we can take off whenever we like." Marc said, as he finished up with whatever he had been doing.

"C'mon kid, when we get back to base I promise you that you will be informed of everything you need to know."

Shinji wasn't sure, but he thought he saw a look of pity in Val's eyes.

Marc ran over to his bike and turned it on. Shinji was amazed to see it lift off from the ground. It was some sort of flying bike.

Grunir indicated to Asuka that she should get into the hover car, to which she loudly replied that she wasn't going anywhere.

"Suit yourself lass, but just so you know there's another one of those wee beasties out there." As soon as Grunir mentioned this, Asuka quickly jumped into the hover car and loudly demanded to know why they weren't leaving yet.

"Is she always like that?" Val asked as she and Shinji headed toward the hover car.

"Yeah, pretty much." Shinji replied. A thought then occurred to him.

"Wait a second, what about our EVAs? Are we just going to leave them here?" Shinji asked as the hover car lifted off.

"Why don't ya look behind us?" Grunir indicated from the controls in the front seat.

Both Eva pilots looked behind them and gasped. There, flying in the wake of the hover car, were units 01 and 02.

"How is that possible?" Asuka asked, so stunned that her voice was lacking the confidence that it usually conveyed.

"It's a little device I've been working on called a FeatherLite generator. It uses a Light as a Feather spell to make whatever it is attached to become weightless." Grunir explained, not noticing the looks of utter shock on the pilots' faces.

"Where are we?" Asuka asked Shinji.

Shinji just shrugged in stunned silence.

00000000

Location: Infirmary, Auberge research facility

Dr. Ritsuko Akagi awoke to an unfamiliar ceiling, feeling as though she had pulled an all nighter with Misato.

"What happened? Where am I?" She asked herself.

She looked around the room she was in and saw that it was some sort of hospital room, but not like the kind she was used to. Some of the devices she could recognize, but some of the others were completely alien to her.

"Ah, you're up I see." A cheery voice said from the doorway.

Ritsuko looked over and saw a lady in a nurse's scrubs entering the room. She had a cheerful smile on her face and looked to be about 25 years old.

"Excellent, you're the first one to wake up." The nurse stated as she moved around the room.

"The first one to wake up? Were others hurt? Who else is here?" Ritsuko asked, her mind already going over worst case scenarios on how bad the meltdown had been.

"Well, there's another young woman, who has the strangest hair color. I don't believe I have ever seen naturally purple hair before. Also, there were two young gentleman brought in, one of whom was clutching a camera of some sort as if his life depended on it. There was also a young girl and the pilot of that robot outside - the albino girl – the one that Scott carried in. I've also heard that Val and her team found two more of those robots and their pilots, and are bringing them back here."

"What happened to me? Where am I?" Ritsuko asked the nurse the same question she had asked herself.

"Well, as to what happened to you we don't exactly know, and were hoping you could tell us. But this is the Auberge research facility's infirmary wing." The nurse stated as she poured a glass of water for her patient.

"Here, drink this." Ordered the nurse, who handed the water to Ritsuko and then headed to the door.

"Hey wait, what's going to happen to me?" Ritsuko asked.

"When the rest of your group wakes up, Mr. Auberge would like to set up an interview with all of you. Now get some rest, I'll let you know when the rest of your people have awoken." With that, the nurse walked out, leaving a very confused Dr. Akagi behind her.

0000000000

Location: Head researcher's office, Auberge research facility

"Yes sir, Grunir and Val are heading back now with the two robots - EVAs they called them - and their pilots."

Damon Auberge looked at the speaker built into his desk, listening intently as Marc gave his report.

"So you're sure that they are from another dimension?" Damon asked.

"Pretty sure, they seemed surprised by my Sky Cycle, and from what Grunir just told me they seem pretty unfamiliar with magic too."

"Alright good work, I'll see you when you return to base, Damon out."

Damon listened as Marc cut the link, and then sat back in his chair to think.

'Well, that makes eight of them all together, plus three of those robots.'

Damon looked back over Scott's short report, and once again marveled at his findings. The robot - or whatever it was - had an aura, which could only mean one thing. It was - in some way - alive.

'We'll need to do some more testing as soon as possible.' Damon sat back and began to plan for the future.

000000000

Next chapter...5: Q&A

Special thanks: Eternally Lost Zeppo, whose amazing pre-reading has once again kept this story from looking like something you would read in a 3rd grade English class.

A/N: I know I left some unanswered questions with this chapter, but that's what the next chapter is for. 'Til the next chapter.

Omakes- written by vcharlie.

OMAKE (1): chapter 4: Discoveries  
"Shinji you baka, get down here!" Asuka yelled up at him.

While yelling at him allowed her to relieve some of her pent up emotions, though she would never admit that she had yelled at him just to get him down there with her.

Shinji jumped at the sound of her voice, and then began to climb down the Eva. He reached ground out of Asuka's line of sight, took a moment to collect himself, and then turned to face the red-haired pilot.

A second later, two shrieks filled the air.

"What happened to you?" They both yelled, almost simultaneously.

Asuka couldn't believe her eyes; this couldn't be wimpy little Shinji. He was too old, too handsome to be Shinji. However, upon closer inspection she could see the similarities. In fact, he looked kind of like his father, though much younger, and without the beard.

'I must be dreaming again.' Asuka thought it was one of those wet dreams.

"Oh Shiji." Asuka said in a melodious voice.

'Well it's time for Eve to entice the reluctant Adam. The world's population won't spontaneously pop out of the ground.' Asuka mischievously thought.  
-End of OMAKE (1)-

OMAKE (2) chapter 4: Discoveries  
Dr. Ritsuko Akagi awoke to an unfamiliar ceiling, feeling as though she  
had pulled an all nighter with Misato.

"What happened? Where am I?" She asked herself.

She looked around the room she was in and saw that it was some sort of  
hospital room, but not like the kind she was used to. Some of the  
devices she could recognize, but some of the others were completely  
alien to her.

"I think that's a heart monitor, there's, something that resembles a  
brain monitor, and a very animated anal probe."

Not that she was complaining of course. With a little bit of  
rubbing and some naughty thinking of Gendo she became quite happy.

-End of OMAKE (2)-

Here are some more review responses:

Vcharlie- Damn, when you leave a review, you leave a review. Ch.5 and 6 should hopefully answer some of those questions you have about the origins of rifts earth and the character's backstories. I really liked your theory on how the Lance of Longinus works. I won't be using the Lance in this Book, but it will appear in Book 2. If I happen to use that theory of yours, I'll make sure you receive full credit for it.

Eternally Lost Zeppo- I am being mysterious with the Auberge team for a good reason. This is a three book story and some of the questions raised in this book won't be answered until books 2 and 3. Don't worry though, the main premise of the Auberge team will be revealed by the end of this book.

X-over- Thanks for all the websites you sent me. EVA info galore.

Andross937- Okay, I've got a couple of ideas bouncing around in my head and I might be sending you an e-mail containing them in the next few days. Any advice you could give would be appreciated.


	6. Ch5 Q&A

Disclaimer: See ch.1 (is this getting a bit redundant?)

A/N: Check out the OMAKES written by vcharlie for chapters 1&4. They're really funny.

**Of Rifts and EVAs**

**Book 1 of the Heaven's Storm trilogy**

**Chapter 5: Q&A**

Dimension: Rifts Earth

Location: Somewhere in the Magic Zone, former U.S.A

Date: July, 2 109 PA

"Why do they always cry for mercy from their gods when I am the only god who hears them?"

"My lady, you are not a god yet."

The village had been burning steadily since nightfall. Foolish beings, all they had to do to survive was agree to worship her as their goddess, but no, they had clung to their other gods and had forsaken her offer. For that insult they had died. Every man, woman, and child, gone in less than an hours worth of slaughter.

Overlooking the burning village was a hill, and on that hill stood one who would be a god. Her name was Lady Deathscale, and she was a Great Horned dragon. Standing next to her was the Gromek (1) known as Verruk. He was her second – in – command and one true friend, and therefore the only being who could commit such blasphemy and not be slain a moment later.

They both watched as her troops left the burning village, their horrific work done.

"A pity they all had to die, I have never seen a race such as theirs. They might have made fine slaves." Verruk mentioned, thinking of the seven foot tall, muscular humanoids that had once occupied the village.

"They refused me, no one refuses me." Lady Deathscale simply said.

As the two continued watching the village burn, a human soldier ran up the hill and kneeled behind them, waiting to be noticed.

"Yes soldier, what do you want?" Verruk asked, knowing that his lady would not involve herself in the matter.

"Sir, we found a man in the woods today. We thought him mad, but he has been screaming to see the Lady. He keeps saying that the gods have sent her gifts for her crusade."

"If he worships me, he should not worry about other gods. However, I am curious, what did he say these gifts were?" Lady Deathscale asked

"He said something about two great robots being sent from the heavens to aid you. He keeps repeating it over and over." The soldier replied, keeping his head bowed and looking at the ground.

"Verruk, go and see about the claims of this man. I have important business to attend to."

Lady Deathscale spread her wings and leapt from the hill, quickly gaining altitude and eventually disappearing into the evening gloom.

"Bring this man to me; I shall try to verify his story." Verruk ordered.

The soldier nodded and walked down the hill quickly, a chill entering even his dark heart as he pondered how commander Verruk would verify the story.

0000000

Location: Meeting room, Auberge research facility

Date: July, 3 109 PA

In the well lit meeting room, two figures sat opposite ends of the table and studied each other.

Damon Auberge sat in his chair and studied the woman across from him. By the look of her she was a fellow scientist. She was obviously in charge, as the others seemed to look to her for answers. She also seemed to be able to keep her cool, even in as confusing a situation as this. Yes, this Dr. Akagi intrigued him.

"You still have not answered my question." Dr. Akagi said, breaking the silence of the room.

"All in good time doctor, I am simply awaiting the arrival of someone, and then we will get down to business." Damon said in a placating tone.

For a few more minutes they sat in silence, each studying the other. Finally the door slid open and Scott Fenix entered the room. The young Techno-Wizard sat down and pulled out a set of data chips which he put on the table.

"Now, Dr. Akagi I believe you had some questions." Damon said.

"Why have we not been allowed to talk with the U.S government?"

Damon sighed; he had guessed that this would be the case.

"It's quite simple Doctor, there is no U.S government, in fact there is no United States."

"How is that possible?" She asked, surprise and disbelief coloring her voice.

"They were wiped out about three hundred years ago." Damon stated.

"My associate here has compiled a report which I believe will answer some of your questions." Damon nodded at Scott, who then sat up and inserted the first of the data chips into the reader built into the table.

The view screen in the room lit up, it was displaying a CGI globe. It rotated around for a few seconds before zooming in on South America.

"We don't know much; only fragments of information survived the Great Cataclysm. Here is what we know. In the year 2098, mankind was living in a golden age. Technology was growing by leaps and bounds. However, it would seem that things were not as golden as most people believed."

As Scott spoke the globe on the view screen began to change, highlighting the events which he was talking about. Currently, two South American nations were highlighted and flashing.

"Tensions that had been simmering between two South American nations erupted into open conflict. On December 22nd 2098, a limited nuclear exchange occurred between the two countries."

The highlighted countries ceased flashing. Now little dots appeared in the countries, each representing a city. Suddenly CGI missile trails streaked from the two countries. There were very few of the missiles, but each one that connected with a dot generated a CGI mushroom cloud, indicating that the city had died.

"Millions died, but it was just a prelude to the destruction that was to come. At the same moment as the nuclear exchange, a rare planetary alignment took place, which reactivated long dormant ley lines that encircled the globe."

The view of South America disappeared as the camera zoomed out into space. It continued to zoom out until the view encompassed the entire solar system. The planets rotated along their axis until they were all aligned. At that point the camera zoomed back to Earth, which now had faint lines of blues appearing all over it.

"Now it is believed that, had there been no nuclear exchange, then the planetary alignment would have passed, and the ley lines would have gone back into dormancy. That was not to be. At the moment of death, most beings give off a burst of energy. When those millions of people died, there was a great burst of energy which the ley lines absorbed, causing them to flare to unimaginable levels."

The faint blue lines encompassing the globe suddenly flared into a bright, solid blue.

"The flaring of these ley lines caused all kinds of catastrophe, which in turn caused more deaths thus feeding the burgeoning ley lines. The additional power fed to the ley lines only increased the cataclysm."

Little graphics began popping up all over the screen. Each one represented some kind of disaster. Land mass disappeared as flooding caused by the rise of Atlantis (2) increased sea levels all over the world.

"Billions died in what we call the Great Cataclysm, but as I said this was only a prelude to the slaughter to come. What came next was even worse. The flaring of the ley lines brought magic levels to unimaginable heights, weakening the Earth's dimensional fabric and causing the eruption of rifts in time and space, turning our Earth into a dimensional nexus of sorts."

The view screen switched to a recording of a rift opening over some unnamed nexus point. For a moment space seemed to fold in on itself, and then a massive flare of energy raced into the air. The rift sat over the nexus, a giant tear in the universe.

"From these rifts poured demons and monsters of all kinds. By this time the governments had collapsed, and so most people were unable to fight back against these monsters. Billions more died in what was termed the Coming of the Rifts. All in all, over 80 of the earth's population died."

The view of Earth disappeared as graph after graph appeared, each of which bore rough casualty figures. The margin for error was large, but the results were still quite horrifying.

"What followed was a dark age as humans and D-Bees - our term for dimensional beings - tried to eke out a place to survive on this new earth. Today we live in the year 109 Post Apocalypse, which would be about 2404 AD by the old calendar." Scott finished his explanation and sat back down, turning off the view screen as he did.

Damon looked over at Dr. Akagi. Her face showed visible shock and horror at what she had just seen and heard.

"So th...the earth is inhabited by monsters now?" Dr. Akagi asked quite hesitantly.

"No, not all D-bees are monsters, quite the contrary in fact. Many of them were torn out of their own dimensions by the rifts and were deposited here. They might look different, but they are just trying to survive, the same as we are." Damon explained.

"Now here comes the weird part, we believe the earth you are from is not this earth." Scott stated.

"How is that possible?" Dr. Akagi seemed to be collecting herself quite quickly.

'Impressive, she has been hit with some very shocking revelations and within minutes she is able to rebound. This is a woman who is used to such shocks.' Damon thought to himself.

"Considering some of the things I have learned of the Megaverse and dimensional travel, I would forward a guess that you come from a parallel earth. I have studied your 'EVAs' and while I have been unable to get very far with them, I have done some checking with a contact in New Lazlo (3). He has been doing some historical research on robots; of course his records are incomplete, but nowhere has he been able to find any references to these EVAs of yours." Scott took a sip from a glass of water and continued.

"Also I have found that you come the year 2014 and while it is not unheard of for someone to have been brought forward in time by a rift, I believe that this combined with your robots shows that you are from a parallel earth. In fact I believe we can prove it."

"Show me."

000000000

Location: Dimensional studies lab, Auberge research facility

"What is this place?" Dr. Akagi asked, looking around the lab.

"This is our dimensional studies lab. It's here that we study artifacts from other dimensions, dimensional anomalies, and dimensional magic." Damon replied.

As they were talking Kurnus Mal'ec walked into the lab.

"Doctor I believe that you have already met Kurnus, our resident Shifter and head of dimensional studies."

"Yes, I believe it was he that did all those tests on us yesterday." Dr. Akagi said, taking the elf's proffered hand.

After a quick handshake Kurnus walked over to a computer terminal in the room and began to enter some data.

"Well Circe and I put our heads together, and we were able to piece together an analysis. I wish you had been more forthcoming with information Dr. Akagi, your unwillingness to tell us what sort of experiment you were conducting has hampered our investigation efforts."

"I told you what was not classified. We were conducting an experiment with a new type of energy source."

"Well be that as it may, it would have helped a lot if we knew what form of energy, but you won't tell and we won't press for it." Kurnus said.

"As far as we can tell, when this energy source of yours overloaded, it caused a major dimensional anomaly. It seems that you and whatever else was caught in the overload were ripped from your own dimension and deposited here."

"If that is true, than where are the rest of the people who worked in the facility with us, why were we the only ones you found?" Dr. Akagi asked, quite perplexed.

"We really don't know." Kurnus answered.

"Alright then answer me this, what happened to the pilots?"

"Ah that, well Circe has a theory about that. I'll let her tell you." Kurnus sat down at the terminal as the pleasant voice of the computer echoed into the room.

"Thank you Kurnus, and you might want to depart now. My cameras just picked up Val heading this way, with a large stack of papers with your name on them." The computer said with a "you're in trouble now" lilt to her voice.

"Ah yes, well, I must be departing now. You know, important work to do and all. I'll see you later." With that, the elf walked up to the door, looked out both ways, and quickly fled.

"Now, as for the pilots, my theory goes like this. I have received the report from our alchemical team - who analyzed this LCL that you use - and have combined these findings with the limited knowledge Scott and Marc have been able to glean from your EVAs."

"Wait a minute, who said you could study the EVAs without our approval?" Dr. Akagi demanded.

"All research on them has currently ceased, as per Damon's instructions. He believed it appropriate that we wait for your approval before starting research on them again."

Damon watched as Dr. Akagi looked over at him with a suspicious glance. Damon simply smiled at her.

"Now as I was saying, I have combined all the findings we currently have, and have come to a very likely theory. I believe that at some point during the dimensional anomaly that brought you here, a number of events combined to cause some kind of temporal distortion within the entry plugs of the EVAs. I can not say for sure what the exact combination of events was, nor have I been able to pinpoint what inside the EVAs was the catalyst for the distortion, though I believe it has something to do with this LCL." The computer explained.

"Is there anyway to reverse it?"

"No, Dr. Akagi I do not believe there is. We simply do not have enough information at this point." Circe replied.

Dr. Akagi simply nodded and slid into a chair. At the same time, the door opened and Val poked her head in.

"Has anyone seen Kurnus?"

0000000

Dimension: The Warehouse

Location: Warehouse 4

A few weeks after the Auberge facility was built, a strange anomaly was found. It seemed that sometime during the construction a rift had opened, but had not closed. No one knew how this could have been missed, and many feared that this could destroy the fledgling facility. Instead it turned out to be a great boon. The rift was located at the bottom of an elevator shaft, and it was discovered to be connected to a strange dimension. The dimension was a giant storage facility of some sort. It contained nearly 300 hundred massive warehouses, all of which seemed to be empty. Hoping that the original owners didn't return, the facility began to use the dimension as its own private storage space.

The Eva units had been moved to Warehouse 4, which had been recently renovated and was being converted into a hangar bay. Scaffolding had been quickly erected around the EVAs, and equipment to study the EVAs was sitting around the hangar. However, none of it had been used. Damon had ordered the moratorium on study of the EVAs shortly after they had been moved down here.

At first the hangar seemed empty, but upon reaching head height with the EVAs, Damon saw that Scott and Marc were there. Scott had a scanner of some sort, and was studying unit-01's head. At the sound of Damon's and Dr. Akagi's foot steps, Scott quickly hid the scanner behind him and adopted an innocent expression.

"I believe I told you two no more research was to be done on the EVAs until approval was given by Dr.Akagi, she is the rightful owner after all."

"Aw, come on boss. You know us; we want to know what it is..." Marc stated.

"...What it does..." Scott said.

"...And if we can break stuff with it." They both said in unison.

"As admirable a sentiment as that is, it's still not enough." Damon said sternly, though he found it hard not to laugh out loud at the antics of the two Techno-Wizards.

"Okay get out of here you two, and don't come back without prior approval." Damon ordered.

The Techno-Wizards grabbed their stuff and climbed down the scaffolding, mumbling darkly the whole time.

After they had left, Damon waved his hand at the EVAs and asked, "So, are the facilities to your liking?"

"They are adequate, for now. However, I have one question. Will you be able to get us home?"

Damon thought for a second before responding.

"Yes, we should be able to. Once Mal'ec has positively identified your originating dimension, which should not take too long, you will be free to go."

"How long till he has identified it?"

"He should be meditating on it right now, so no more than 24 to 36 hours." Damon answered.

"How about the pilots, will you be able to reverse the temporal distortion's effects?"

"No, you and I both heard Circe's report. It would take years of hard research to find out the exact combination of effects that caused the distortion, and even if we manage to discover the cause, it is more than likely we would not be able to reverse the effects."

Dr. Akagi simply nodded at this, her eyes growing distant as she grew deep in thought.

"Come doctor, let us head back to my office and see if we can't arrange for some more comfortable quarters for you and your people."

00000000

Ritsuko Akagi had had a long day. First off, she had finally been allowed see the other people who had been pulled into this dimension. It was then that she had seen what had happened to the pilots. After a short reunion, the group had been broken up and taken off for numerous tests. Later, they had been brought back together and had elected Ritsuko to be their spokesperson, she being the only one who had half a clue as to what might have happened to them. After that she had been hustled into the meeting with Damon Auberge, the head of this research station.

After all the revelations of the day, all Ritsuko wanted to do was crawl into bed and go to sleep. As she followed Damon down a hallway, Ritsuko thoughts began to drift to the fate of Tokyo-3 and the people there.

All thoughts of Tokyo-3 left her mind, as she suddenly felt an urgent need to stop. She stopped next to a door way labeled "Storage room b-8". Damon noticed that Ritsuko had stopped, and turned around to see why she had stopped. When he realized what room she was standing in front of, he gave a small chuckle.

Ritsuko didn't notice this as she peered into the room. It was empty and bare. No, not bare, there was writing all over the walls. Ritsuko opened the door, not even waiting to get Damon's permission. She wasn't thinking clearly, she had this need to go into the room.

Now that she could see the room better, she took a closer look at the writing on the walls. The writing was in a language that she had never seen before. Also, it seemed to be chaotic, with lines going up, down, diagonal, left, right, and crossways. There was no rhyme or reason to it. The writing was hypnotic, and she soon felt her eye lids begin to close.

Suddenly she felt some energy flow into her and she started, looking around at her surroundings. She saw that she was no longer in the room, but in the hallway outside.

"Well doctor, it would seem as if you are a lost soul." Damon said with a gentle smile on his face.

"What do you mean?" Ritsuko asked, visibly shaken.

"That room you went into, we call it the Room of Dreams. We don't know why, but it seems to draw lost souls to it. They fall asleep in there and wake up changed, be it for better or worse."

"Why would you build such a room?"

"Well, we didn't. Five years ago, two months after this facility was finished, a certain young boy by the name of Scott Fenix wandered out of the forest and onto our front door. He was a mess, nearly catatonic, and had probably been on his own for months. The first night he stayed here, he sleepwalked into this room and began writing all that gibberish on the walls. When he woke up he seemed better somehow, he started talking and seemed willing to interact with the world. He does not know what the writing means, and so far we have not been able to translate it. However, we think the writing is some form of enchantment. It seems to draw those who are troubled to it, and make them confront their problems in their dreams. It has - on occasion - drawn an un-troubled mind to it and given a prophecy to them. That is extremely rare though." Damon explained.

"Why did you drag me out of the room then?"

"Well, it seems that only those who sleepwalk into the room are helped. Those that fall asleep in the room are given some pretty horrible nightmares."

"Oh, well thank you."

"No problem; now lets get you to your quarters." Damon then took Ritsuko's arm and led her away from the Room of Dreams.

0000000

Damon, now alone in his office, looked over the files that had been compiled on all the people who had been brought here by the anomaly. They were labeled as follows: Ritsuko Akagi, Doctor. Misato Katsuragi, Major. Asuka Langley Sohryu, pilot. Shinji Ikari, pilot. Rei Ayanami, pilot. Kensuke Aida, student. Toji Suzuhara, student. Hikari Horaki, student.

'An interesting group.' Damon mused.

'Now the question is: will they help our cause or hurt it?"

0000000

Next chapter...6: Circe's personnel files

Special thanks: Eternally lost Zeppo whose awesome pre-reading has kept this story legible. Vcharlie, who wrote some damn funny OMAKES for chapters 1&4. With his permission I am posting them with their relevant chapters.

A/N: Alright, the next chapter will have those character backgrounds. Also, the reactions of the Eva crew to their new surroundings and the changes some have gone through will be shown. Looks like ch.6 will be as long as ch.5. 'Til next chapter.

(#)- Definitions

Gromek- 8-9 foot tall winged race of lizards. They are a race of conquerors.

Atlantis- The return of magic to Rifts Earth caused Atlantis to return from the dimensional limbo that had taken it from ancient earth. It is claimed by a Splugorth (4) named Lord Splynncryth. He has turned the island into a kingdom of monsters.

New Lazlo- Located near the demon infested ruins of Detroit, Michigan. New Lazlo is a magic community patterned after its parent, Lazlo. New Lazlo is known for its highly optimistic attitude and the amount of historical research done there.

Splugorth- Near god-like alien intelligences (Intelligences are powerful supernatural beings). They resemble a mound of flesh topped with one eye and surrounded by a number of tentacles, each of which ends in a mouth. They are masters of many forms of magic and have incredible psionic powers.

Review responses:

21 reviews so far and not a flame among them, thank you. I'd lake to take this moment to thank all of you who have been leaving such helpful reviews. Through your reviews I am able to see where I can improve the story. Time now for some review responses:  
  
X-over- Thanks for some more great sites. I have many of the Rifts world books, but I'm sure there is something I can find on these sites which could turn out to be very useful to the story.  
  
vcharlie- Thanks for pointing out that description problem. I find when I write that I tend to be overly descriptive (very overly descriptive) and from some of the reviews I have read on this site, people don't tend to like that. Still, I think that you're right; I do need to add some more description with out going overboard with it. To answer your questions:  
  
1. The Magic Zone looks quite similar to what Mid-east USA would have looked like before Europeans came to America. Just add in the pre-rift ruins, the villages and cities (there are very few cities in the Magic Zone) and the odd areas here and there where alien vegetation had taken over.  
2. No, the sky over the Magic Zone is not different.  
3.The pyramid is made out of stone (hence the reason why it was created by a Stone Master) and looks very similar to the Egyptian pyramids just without the years of wear and tear.  
4.There are no similarities to NERV HQ (when the pyramid was introduced, NERV HQ's being a pyramid slipped my mind) other than the fact that they are both pyramids.


	7. Ch6 Circe's personnel files

Disclaimer: See ch.1

A/N: In the personnel files, anything in _italics_ is not part of the story but something that would appear in a character bio in one of the world books and such. It's to help all of you die hard Rifts fans out there envision the characters better. For those of you who are not die hard fans, don't worry. The extra info has no impact on the storyline; I'm simply translating some of the character descriptions into character bios. Also, I know I said I would show the EVA casts reaction to rifts earth, but this chapter got so long that I decided to give the EVA cast reaction a whole chapter to itself. Ch.8 will hopefully display their reactions to this new world.

**Of Rifts and EVAs**

**Book 1 of the Heaven's Storm trilogy**

**Chapter 6: Circe's personnel files**

Dimension: Rifts Earth

Location: Guest quarters, Auberge research facility

Date: July, 5 109 PA

"Damnit, are you done yet?"

"You're acting like a child Misato, and if you continue to act like one I am going to have to send you to your room."

"Oh, you're just an old bitch."

"The old part was uncalled for." (A/N: Loved that line from the manga, just had to include it.)

Misato and Ritsuko sat in front of the computer terminal located in the common room of their shared quarters. The guest quarters were like apartments; you had a common room joining two bedrooms, each of which had its own bathroom. The quarters were spacious and quite comfortable.

Misato sighed; they had been at this for over an hour now and were still no closer to their goal than when they had started.

"Why is this taking so long?" Misato asked.

"I told you that hacking their system would take time."

"But it's been over an hour now." Misato whined.

"This system is some sort of combination holographic/manual interface. For me to access the files you want to look at, I need to use both the manual and holographic interfaces, and unfortunately I can't figure out how to activate the holographic interface. This system is completely alien to me; you shouldn't be surprised at how long this is taking."

'You'd think that with all the surprises that I've suffered up to this point, that she'd be right.' Misato thought.

Ever since waking up in the Auberge facility's infirmary, Misato had been hammered by one surprise after another. It was the same for all of them, she guessed.

The first surprise was that she was alive. Misato had thought they were dead for sure when the S2 engine had melted down. That wall of energy had hit the control room and then everything had gone dark.

No, the meltdown had not killed her. Its aftereffect though, had led to the second big surprise; she was no longer on earth. Well, not her earth anyways, or so Ritsuko had explained to them all.

Those two things had affected Misato, but neither had hit her with the shear strength the third surprise had. The changes her two charges had gone through.

Now that Misato thought about it, the moment she had walked in and seen Asuka and Shinji, she should have teased them mercilessly. As it was however, she had been too stunned to utter anything other than incoherent questions. She had been happy they were alive, but the age change had taken her completely off guard.

Ritsuko had tried to give her the explanation that she had received from the scientists who worked here, but Misato hadn't understood any of it. The only thing that had broken through her confusion had been the statement that the effects that had caused the aging could not be reversed.

Misato had asked if this change would affect their ability to pilot the EVAs, but Ritsuko did not have an answer. She wanted to begin testing, but the power for the EVAs had to be carefully rationed, at least until they either got home or another power source could be found.

For the past few days, question after question had flown through Misato's mind.

In fact, it had been those questions that had led her to ask Ritsuko if she could hack into the facility's computer system and find out more about their rescuers. Misato was more than a little suspicious of the Auberge facility and its inhabitants.

So far, all her questions about what they were doing here had either been blown off, or she had been given answers that had sent her bullshit meter off the scale.

It was now an hour later, and they were still sitting in front of the computer when Ritsuko threw her arms in the air in defeat.

"You're not giving up, are you?"

"I still can't access that damn holographic interface and if I can't access it, then I can't even get into the high level files. I'm sorry, but it looks like you require some kind of 'magic' key or something if you want to open the holo interface. Without that key, I'm not going to get in." Ritsuko said in an exasperated tone.

"Still, it's not all a bust; I was able to get into some interesting files."

"Like what?"

"The facility's personnel files." Ritsuko stated.

00000000000

**Auberge Research Facility personnel files**

**Pass code required: **

**Thank you, data loading...**

**Auberge Research Facility personnel files- as of 109 PA**

**Information entered by Chief Researcher Dr. Damon Auberge.**

**Additional information added and filed by Circe.**

**File #1: Damon Auberge **

**Race: Human **

_**Alignment: Unprincipled**_

**Weight: 210 lbs. Height: 6'2**

**Age: Looks 29 years old (Due to the affects of dimensional travel; he is actually 35)**

_**P.P.E: 230**_

_**I.S.P (1):80**_

**_Experience level: 10th level Rogue Scientist, 10th level Ley Line (2) Walker_**

**Disposition: Acts like a father figure for the rest of the staff. **

**He does not try to be inspiring, he just is. He is smart, but not arrogant about it and is more than willing to simplify explanations for those who do not understand. **

**He is very strict about lab protocol, especially with the more dangerous sections, and will rarely allow protocol to be broken unless a sufficiently good reason is given to him. **

_**He has all the Ley Line Walker's special abilities.**_

**_Spell Knowledge: All invocations (3) levels 1-8, as well as spells from many higher levels. _ **

_**Psionics: Considered a minor psychic. Has all sensitive powers**_

(A/N: My knowledge of psionics is very limited. If anybody knows a lot about psionics in Rifts, please e-mail me so we can talk. I'd like to know more about them.)

**Description: Damon Auberge was born in another dimension, but his parents migrated to Rifts earth shortly after he was born. **

**He grew up in the City of Lazlo (4) and very early on showed that he had great potential for magic. He was tutored in the ways of the Ley Line Walker and was on the fact track to greatness that was until the day tragedy struck. **

**Damon - now 14 - returned home from school one day and found a note from his parents explaining that they could no longer stay on earth, he was devastated. (Circe's note- Damon has refused to divulge the exact reason as to why his parents left earth.) Damon moved in with a friend of the family and for a long while fell into a deep depression. **

**Instead of letting the depression destroy him though, he channeled all the pain and anguish he felt into his studies and soon became a driven young man. By the time he was 19, he had surpassed many mages who were twice his age. After he had finished his studies Damon left Lazlo for a ten year journey into the Megaverse. **

**It was during his travels that he met the Elven Shifter Kurnus Mal'ec. The two traveled together for a while and soon became fast friends. During one of their travels together they defeated a powerful Demon Lord and 'inherited' its treasure cache. **

**Both of the mages had expressed an interest in starting a lab of their own where they could do research without the pressure of results required by fund providers. So the Auberge facility was born. (Circe's note- Mal'ec has shown no interest in having his name added to the title.)**

**Weapons: As owner of the Auberge facility, he has access to all the weapons in its armory. Whenever he goes into to battle, he usually carries a number of magic scrolls with him.**

**Favorite items: He carries a Sword of Atlantis, a Greatest Rune Weapon (5). He acquired it sometime during his journeys.**

**Money: Even after the founding of the facility, Damon is fabulously wealthy, though he does not flaunt it.**

**Allies: He has high level connections in Lazlo and New Lazlo, Tolkeen (6), The Federation of Magic (7), Dweomer (8), and other magic communities. **

**He has many friends and acquaintances from his traveling days and he can call on them for help. The staff of the facility totally believes in him and would follow him any where.**

**Enemies: A number of jealous Federation Lords (9), who see his facility as a ripe fruit waiting to be plucked. However, his treaty with Lord Dunscon (10) prevents them from attacking the facility. **

**Damon also made enemies during his days of traveling through the Megaverse.**

**File #2: Kurnus Mal'ec**

**Race: Elf**

_**Alignment: Scrupulous**_

**Weight: 120 lbs. Height: 6'7**

**Age: 89 years old.**

_**P.P.E: 245**_

_**I.S.P: 10**_

**_Experience level: 12th level Shifter_**

**Disposition: Always seems to be cheerful and in a pleasant mood. The few times when he gets serious are when things are about to go to hell. **

**He is the number two guy at the Auberge facility, but he doesn't mind. **

_**Has all the Shifters abilities.**_

_**Spell knowledge: All invocations levels 1-5, plus he knows a number of spells from the higher levels, most of which deal with rifts. He also knows some limited Temporal magic.**_

_**Psionics: None**_

**Description: Kurnus was born to a community of Elves who lived in a relatively peaceful dimension. In the society which he grew up, one's hair color determined your place in life. With his raven black hair, Kurnus was destined to become a priest. His parents were ecstatic; being a priest was an honor. **

**Kurnus however had no wish to become a priest. He had neither the patience nor the interest. He wished to study magic, preferably the path of the Shifter. **

**His parents were horrified that he would even consider straying from their society's codes and he was strictly forbidden from studying magic. Unfortunately, with his lack of psychic abilities this greatly hampered his ability to become a priest. **

**Eventually Kurnus got fed up with it all and ran away. He had the luck to be taken in by an aging Shifter, who taught Kurnus all he knew. During his time with his mentor, Kurnus discovered the fact that he loved magical theory and study. **

**When his teacher died, he left all his belongings to Kurnus, the most precious of which was a massive library of texts that the Shifter had collected during his travels through the Megaverse. **

**When the time came to found the Auberge facility, Kurnus donated the entire library to the fledgling facility. Kurnus sometimes thinks about his family, he bears then no ill will and does miss them. He hopes one day that he might be able to go home and show his parents how successful he has become.**

**Weapons: Same as Damon Auberge.**

**Favorite Items: Kurnus carries a magic staff which increases his Shifter powers. It also supplements his P.P.E reserve. **

**Money: Has a large fortune, accumulated from his days of traveling the Megaverse.**

**Allies: He has friends in many dimensions. He and Damon are close friends and neither would hesitate to give their life for the other.**

**Enemies: Same as Damon.**

**File #3: Scott Fenix**

**Race: Unknown (Presumed to be human)**

_**Alignment: Anarchist (Diabolic: See insanities below)**_

**Weight: 185 lbs. Height: 6'1**

**Age: Looks to be 20 years old.**

_**P.P.E: Varies (See insanities below) is usually 210**_

_**I.S.P: Same as P.P.E, is usually 45**_

**_Experience level: 8th level Ley Line Walker, 5th level Techno-Wizard_**

**Disposition: Scott is usually quiet and introverted, especially around people he does not know. Around his friends, Scott can be quite talkative. **

**He values all of his friendships very highly and a transgression against a friend is something he will not tolerate. (CN- Due to his memory condition, it is hard to tell why he is so protective of his friends. Scott himself feels that he some how failed a friend years ago and so strives to never let one down again.) **

**He has a very calm personality and it takes a lot to make him angry, and considering what happens when he becomes angry, this is a good thing. **

**Insanities: Multiple personalities (special) - Whenever Scott becomes extremely angry, another personality takes over. **

**This being calls itself Xi'Nef. At the same time, Scott's body goes through certain changes: he becomes a mega – damage creature, his strength becomes supernatural, and his magical abilities greatly increase. However, this transformation is rarely a boon as the new personality is quite evil. **

**Xi'Nef gives no mercy in battle, and enjoys bloodshed. He is capable of cold – blooded murder, torture, and a host of other crimes. He rarely tells friend from foe during a battle and so is a danger to both sides. **

**During these rages, only a few things seem to be able to calm Scott down. Stunning him, psionic assaults (Xi'Nef is vulnerable to psionics; the complete opposite of Scott), and the presence of his friend Marc, who seems to be the only person who can calm Scott. **

**He usually has no memory of the events that transpired while he was changed, though after every episode he has terrible nightmares. (CN-There is much conjecture amongst the psychiatric staff at the facility as to whether Scott or Xi'Nef is the original personality. All fear what the truth might be.)**

**Insanities: Memory loss- Scott has no memory prior to five years ago. What he can remember is vague and rarely helpful. However, it should be noted that only personal memories have been lost. **

**While he doesn't know where he learned all of his skills, Scott does remember the skills themselves. (CN- I believe that Scott has lost more than personal memories. During the episodes when he becomes Xi'Nef, he knows many more spells which he probably learned long ago, but has forgotten. Why this is I don't know, but further investigation was halted by Dr. Auberge.)**

_**Has all Ley Line Walker abilities. **_

_**Spell knowledge: All invocations levels 1-7. He also knows more spells from the higher levels. When he becomes Xi'Nef, he knows all invocations levels 1-15! Also as Xi'Nef he has shown proficiencies in many other forms of magic including Necromancy and Shifting.**_

_**Psionics: Scott is considered a minor psionic; he only has the powers of Empathy, Telemechanics, and Object Read. However, Scott is nearly impervious to psychic powers. Xi'Nef would be considered a master psionic. He knows all physical, sensitive, and healing powers. He knows the super psionics: Psi-Sword, P.P.E shield, and Bio-Manipulation. Xi'Nef is vulnerable to psionic attacks (in game terms, he saves like a minor psychic.)**_

**Description: Not much is known of the past of Scott Fenix. No history has been found on him and he doesn't remember much more than a few vague details. He does not question his past to much, he simply accepts what has happened to himself and is forging a new life at the facility. (CN- From some things that Scott has mentioned, it has been hypothesized that he forgot his past on purpose.) **

**Scott has become best friends with his fellow Techno-Wizard Marc Fitzler. The two are an odd couple; the loud and annoying Marc, and the quiet and introspective Scott. However, the two are as close as brothers and both will protect the other with their life. **

**(CN- The Dagony incident: Two years ago Scott and Marc were returning from the City of Dweomer when they were jumped by a Necromancer cult. Both of the Techno-Wizards put up a good fight, but were eventually defeated by superior numbers. They were captured and taken to the town of Dagony, the cult's hideout. There both of the Techno-Wizards were to be tortured. **

**The Necromancers decided to start on Marc, quite unawares of the effects the sounds of his suffering would have on Scott. After a few minutes of listening to his friend tortured, Scott changed into Xi'Nef. This was his first recorded appearance. **

**Xi'Nef easily defeated the cult. He left them unconscious and went into the village of Dagony. Most of the villagers were unaware of the cult, but this did not stop Xi'Nef. He slaughtered every living being in the town, even the pets and livestock. After he had finished with the town, he went back to the cult's lair and tortured them in a hideous manner. **

**When the Auberge team arrived on the scene a few hours later, the entire area was like a charnel house. The cultists had been dismembered, disemboweled, and yet were still alive. Scott was found unconscious and covered in blood, Marc's wounds had been healed and neither of them could remember what had happened. Only after a very thorough investigation was the truth discovered.) **

**Even with this incident in mind, Scott was promoted to head of the Techno-Wizard section last year.**

**Weapons: Has access to a number of TW weapons, many of which he made himself.**

**Favorite Items: .45 cal "Thunderer" magnum, TW Nerve Jammer, an assortment of scanners and TW tools.**

**Money: Only what he makes at the facility and the limited sales of his TW devices.**

**Allies: He can always count on Marc, his best friend. In fact most people at the facility like him. **

**Grunir Thorson is jealous of him; he had been hoping to get the position of head of the TW section. **

**Val Nostrom does not trust Scott, she believes him to be a danger to the facility.**

**Enemies: None that he can remember.**

**File#4: Marc Fitzler**

**Race: Human**

_**Alignment: Unprincipled**_

**Weight: 200 lbs. Height: 5'9**

**Age: 19 years old**

_**P.P.E: 80**_

_**I.S.P: 29**_

**_Experience Level: 7th level Techno-Wizard_**

**Disposition: Cheerful in an annoying way. He always seems to have a joke or two for any situation. He rarely takes anything seriously. He enjoys practical jokes which does not endear him to the people that he meets. **

**Most people either like him or hate him. If not for the grounding presence provided by his friend, Scott, Marc would most likely act like a fool all the time. He does have a few endearing qualities, the best of which is his loyalty to his friends. He may play jokes on them, but when worst comes to worst he will be there for them.**

_**Has all Techno-Wizard abilities**_

_**Spell knowledge: All invocations levels 1-3, as well as some spells from the higher levels.**_

_**Psionics: A minor psionic, he has all sensitive powers.**_

**Description: Marc Fitzler was born in a small town located in the Magic Zone. He lived there for a few years with his family until the day when tragedy struck. A Coalition patrol happened upon the village and destroyed it. Marc was the only survivor. A group of travelers discovered him in the ruins and took him to the city of Dweomer. He...**

**Error...Error**

**Connection timed out. All processes terminated. **

0000000

"What the hell just happened Ritsuko?" Misato asked.

"Give me a moment."

For the next few minutes Ritsuko typed at the keyboard while Misato waited semi-patiently for her to finish.

"Well, it looks like the computer has some sort of internal timer in it. We're only allowed so much time online before we get booted off. I can't reset it without the holo-interface."

Misato sighed in exasperation.

'Just when we were learning some inside information, this happens.'

000000000

Location: Damon's office

Damon Auberge hated paperwork. It was the most boring part of his job. He would much rather be in a lab experimenting on some project.

Thankfully a beep from the comm.-unit in his desk drew his attention from the paperwork.

"Auberge here, what do you need?"

"Damon, this is Kurnus. I have some good news."

"What is it?" Damon asked.

"I think I've found this Tokyo-3 that our friends came from."

000000000

Next chapter...7: Ghost Town

Special Thanks: Eternally Lost Zeppo who has once again rescued this story from grammatical self-destruction.

A/N: I originally planned on revealing the rift's characters' backgrounds slowly over the course of the story, but many of the reviews asked for me to hurry up. I had planned on listing them all here, but as I was typing this chapter it got so boring that I went into brain stall. So I've returned to my earlier plans to reveal character background as the story goes along. Also, all backgrounds listed in this chapter should be viewed with suspicion, but that's all I'm saying. Next chapter will have the fate of Tokyo-3 revealed, and it's gonna be a surprise. Stay tuned. 'Til the next chapter.

Definitions:

I.S.P- Internal Strength Points, this is the energy used for psychic powers.

Ley Line Walker- A magic user who specializes in magic related to Ley lines.

Invocations- Spells that require that you speak them aloud to cast them.

Lazlo- Located on the ruins of Toronto. The greatest magic city in North America.

Rune weapon- An indestructible magic weapon made by binding the life essence of a being into a weapon (usually a sword, knife, spear, etc). Rune magic is considered to be a form of magical enslavement and is not very well known in the Megaverse. The Splugorth are masters of Rune magic. Rune weapons come in three varieties: Lesser, Greater, and Greatest.

Tolkeen- A magical city located in Minnesota. Currently at war with the Coalition States.

Federation of Magic- A loosely affiliated group of magic-users. The arch-nemesis of the Coalition.

Dweomer- A city of Magic located in the Magic Zone. Ruled by the mysterious and god-like Lords of Magic. A member of the Federation of Magic.

Federation Lords- Heads of their respective sects of the Federation of Magic.

Lord Dunscon- Evil ruler of one of the largest sects of the Federation of Magic. Believes himself to be ruler of all the Federation of Magic.

Review responses will appear in the next chapter.


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